This invention relates to a flexible or floppy disk drive (which may be hereinafter called xe2x80x9cFDDxe2x80x9d for short) and, in particular, to a thin floppy disk drive comprising, as different parts, a disk shutter arm and an eject lever. The disk shutter arm is for opening or closing a shutter of a flexible or floppy disk (which may be hereinafter called xe2x80x9cFDxe2x80x9d for short) inserted or loaded in the thin floppy disk drive. The eject lever is for controlling a sliding operation of an eject plate.
In the manner which is well known in the art, the floppy disk drive of the type is a device for carrying out data recording and reproducing operation to and from a disk-shaped magnetic recording medium of the floppy disk loaded therein. In addition, such a floppy disk drive is mounted or loaded in a portable electronic apparatus such as a laptop personal computer, a notebook-size personal computer, a notebook-size word processor, or the like.
The floppy disk drive of the type comprises a magnetic head for reading/writing data from/to the magnetic recording medium of the floppy disk, a carriage assembly for supporting the magnetic head at a tip thereof with the magnetic head movably along a predetermined radial direction to the floppy disk, a stepping motor for moving the carriage assembly along the predetermined radial direction, and a spindle motor for rotatably driving the magnetic recording medium with the floppy disk held. The spindle motor is one of direct-drive (DD) motors.
In recent years, the above-mentioned portable electronic apparatuses are more and more improved to be thinned. Following such improvement, the floppy disk drives mounted or loaded therein have also improved to be thinned. With thinning of the floppy disk drive, it is desired to miniaturize the floppy disk drive in a back-and-forth size. To achieve the thinning and the miniaturizing of the floppy disk drive, various regulations (restrictions) are imposed on parts constituting the floppy disk drive. That is, inasmuch as there are a lot of restrictions caused by omitting a space (thinning), a margin of design has a tendency to become smaller.
For example, it is possible for a thick floppy disk drive to construct, as one part, an eject shutter arm and an eject plate. The eject shutter arm is for opening and closing a shutter of the floppy disk inserted in the floppy disk drive. The eject lever is for controlling a sliding operation in an eject plate for ejecting the inserted floppy disk.
On the other hand, it is necessary for a thin floppy disk drive to construct, as different parts, the eject shutter arm and the eject plate. In this event, the eject shutter arm is rotatably mounted on a disk holder for holding the floppy disk while the eject lever is rotatably mounted on a main frame. The eject shutter arm has a sufficient long stroke (that is, a rotatable range of a wider rotation angle) for opening and closing the shutter of the floppy disk. On the other hand, the eject lever has a short stroke (that is, a rotatable range of a narrower rotation angle). This is because the eject lever may only slide the eject plate when the floppy disk is inserted or loaded in the floppy disk drive.
More specifically, when the floppy disk is inserted or loaded in the thin floppy disk drive, a top end of the eject lever is engaged with an upper end of a right side edge of the shutter of the floppy disk, and the shutter gradually opens by rotation of the eject shutter arm in opposition to an urging force due to a shutter arm urging arrangement. Subsequently, just before the floppy disk is substantially completely received in the thin floppy disk drive with the shutter sufficiently opened by the eject shutter arm, a top end of the eject lever is engaged with a front edge of the floppy disk. When the floppy disk is further pushed in the thin floppy disk drive, the eject lever rotates in opposition to an urging force of a lever urging arrangement thereof, an engagement between an eject stop part of the eject lever and a plate stopper portion of the eject plate is released, and thereby the eject plate slightly slides in the forward direction (in the opposite direction of an insertion direction). This is because the eject plate is urged by eject springs in the forward direction. On the other hand, inasmuch as the disk holder is movably mounted in the main frame up and down, the disk holder comes down when eject plate slides in the forward direction. This is because projection pins formed on holder side walls of the disk holder are inserted in guide slots formed in plate side walls of the eject plate. In addition, inasmuch as the eject plate slightly slides in the forward direction, an eject bottom also slightly projects in the forward direction.
At any rate, when the floppy disk is inserted in the thin floppy disk drive, the shutter of the floppy disk opens, the floppy disk comes down, and a magnetic recording medium of the floppy disk is put between a pair of upper and lower magnetic heads mounted on a carriage assembly at a top part thereof.
As described above, in the thin floppy disk drive, the eject lever has the rotatable range of the narrower rotation angle (the short stroke). It will be assumed that a shock is given in the thin floppy disk drive in a seek direction of the magnetic heads in a state where the floppy disk is not inserted in the thin floppy disk drive. In this event, as a reaction, the eject lever rotatably moves in opposition to the urging force of the lever urging arrangement, and it may result in releasing the engagement between the eject stop part of the eject lever and the plate stopper portion of the eject plate. That is, the eject lever may erroneously operate. If such an event happens, the eject plate slightly slides in the forward direction although the floppy disk is not inserted in the thin floppy disk drive and then the disk holder comes down. This is because the eject lever has the rotatable range of the narrower rotation angle (the short stroke) and the eject lever easily rotates at the narrower rotation angle in spite of a little shock for the thin floppy disk drive.
At any rate, it is impossible to insert the floppy disk in the thin floppy disk drive once the disk holder comes down.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a thin floppy disk drive which is capable of preventing an erroneous operation in an eject lever.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a thin floppy disk drive of the type described, which is capable of solving the above-mentioned problem without increasing the number of parts.
Other objects of this invention will become clear as the description proceeds.
On describing the gist of an aspect of this invention, it is possible to be understood that a thin floppy disk drive comprises a main frame in which a floppy disk having a shutter is inserted. Mounted on said main frame slidably backward and forward, an eject plate ejects the floppy disk inserted in the main frame. The eject plate has a plate stopper portion. Mounted in the main frame, a disk holder holds the floppy disk. The disk holder moves up and down when the eject plate slides backward and forward. Rotatably mounted on the disk holder, a disk shutter arm opens and closes the shutter of the floppy disk. Rotatably mounted on the main frame, an eject lever has an eject stop part engaged with the plate stopper portion of the eject plate. The eject lever makes the eject plate slide forwards by releasing engagement by the eject stop part to make the disk holder come down when the floppy disk is inserted in the thin floppy disk drive. The eject stop part of the eject lever is engaged with the plate stopper portion of the eject plate when the disk holder comes up on eject operation.
According to the aspect of this invention, the eject lever has an eject protrusion. The disk shutter arm has a shutter hook part engaged with the eject protrusion so as to control a rotation operation of the eject lever when the floppy disk is not inserted in the thin floppy disk drive. It is therefore possible to prevent the elect lever from rotating over a predetermined rotation angle as far as the floppy disk is not inserted in the thin floppy disk drive.